The provision and use of financial services and products that conform to Islamic religious principles pose special challenges for the identification, measurement, monitoring, and control of underlying risks. Effective and efficient risk management in Islamic financial institutions has assumed...

This paper outlines the recent progress in developing Islamic financial instruments for the management of monetary policy and public borrowing requirements and provides details on new instruments currently being developed in the Islamic Republic of Iran and Sudan. The paper also touches on the...

Hawala and other remittance systems have gained attention in recent years with the substantial growth of remittance flows from countries with large migrant labor forces and with increased focus on combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The IMF and the World Bank have been...

In an Islamic system, as interest is prohibited, banks are expected to operate solely on the basis of profit and risk sharing. This paper describes the developments in Islamic banking in Iran and Pakistan. As these two countries have initiated the most far-reaching experiments with Islamic...

This paper provides a proposal to incorporate the Core Principles for Islamic Finance Regulation (Banking Sector) (CPIFR) issued by the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB), as part of the standards used in assessing the banking regulatory and supervisory regimes of relevant member...

This paper discusses the need for ensuring financial stability in countries with Islamic Banking (IB). IB continues to grow rapidly, in size and complexity, posing a challenge to supervisory authorities and central banks. The legal environment within which IBs operate can be complex and...

This Technical Note reviews banking sector soundness and stress testing in Serbia. Serbia’s banking sector is well capitalized and liquid, but the corporate sector’s weak performance is a source of concern because of its adverse impact on nonperforming loans. Stress tests indicate that banks...

The easing of controls on interest rates has led to higher interest rate volatility in India. Hence, there is a need to measure and monitor the interest rate exposure of Indian banks. Using publicly available information, this paper attempts to assess the interest rate risk carried by a sample...

This paper proposes an integrated and risk-based approach to the sequencing and coordination of reforms to develop domestic financial markets. The paper argues that there is a hierarchy of financial markets that reflects the complexity of risks in each market and the interlinkages among markets....

This technical note focuses on the stress testing exercise in 2010 for the financial sector assessment program based on the existing approaches of the Central Bank of Russia, as well as a separate bottom-up exercise. The tests covered broad ranges of risk factors. The single factor tests...